One of the first desserts I learned to really nail at home was the molten chocolate cake. If you’ve been lucky enough to have it, you’ll know that it’s essentially a perfectly undercooked mini chocolate cake so when you cut into it, it kind of oozes out into a delicious chocolate sauce. Good stuff.

I figured it might be fun to try something similar but in the land of savory. Tacos were an obvious choose because queso is molten and delicious. I couldn’t just toss it in a taco shell for obvious reasons though (no sides). That’s why the mini taco boat works so well. It keeps everything contained (and also hidden) so it’s kind of a surprise when you bite into them!

Also, I really do prefer the mini ones for this recipe. I tried it with the larger full-sized taco boats and I found them to be a bit much. These are really perfect as a 2-3 bite appetizer. Of course, if you’re me, you’ll just make a meal out of them by eating, like, eight!

Taco Boat Toppings:

Directions

1) In a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and ground beef. Cook ground beef for 4-5 minutes until it’s browned, breaking it up as it cooks. Then add water, Old El Paso Taco seasoning and drained and rinsed black beans. Stir together and turn heat down to low. Keep mixture warm while making other fillings. If the skillet looks too dry at any point, add more water by the 1/4 cup.

2) For queso, add butter and flour to a small pot over low heat. Whisk together to form a roux. Once mixture turns a light tan color, slowly whisk in warmed milk until the mixture turns into a thick sauce. Then add grated cheese and stir into the sauce to thicken it even more. Season with salt and pepper.

3) Prepare other toppings ingredients.

4) Make a molten taco boat by spooning in queso into the bottom of a mini taco boat. Top with ground beef mixture and any toppings you like. Serve immediately!

Molten Taco Boats

If you can make tacos, you can make these. Do make sure to prep stuff in the right order though. Ideally, you would make the queso last so it’s nice and fresh while you are making the boats.

These are the little mini taco boats I used for mine. They are available in most supermarkets and come in packs of 12.

The Boats!

Toppings are various. I went with onion, tomato, avocado, lettuce, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro. Again, just make sure have everything ready!

Extra topping

When it’s time to make the queso, I do recommend making it yourself. The storebought queso would obviously be easier, but the nice thing about making it yourself is you can make it really thick. Most store-bought are pretty thin so you won’t have molten queso as much as you’ll end up with watery queso.

To start the queso, just whisk together the butter and flour in a small pot over low heat until it turns a light tan color.

Roux!

Then slowly whisk in the warm milk until it’s nice and thick. Finally add all the cheese and you’ll have a really nice, thick queso. I recommend seasoning it with a little salt and pepper.

YES.

Making the boats is pretty straightforward at that point. Spoon in some queso, then top with beef and beans.

Nice line up.

Then pile on any other toppings that you like. I like all the toppings!

You know the blog, now know the book

Love Your Leftovers

Love Your Leftovers includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert options as well as a wide range of cuisines. Each main dish includes eight to ten creative recipes for leftovers. With chapters on kitchen and pantry basics and Meal Planning 101, as well as a helpful index of vegetarian and thirty-minute meals. This isn’t just a book you might like, it’s the book your kitchen (and family) need.